Michigan State University Federal Credit Union is launching a personalized digital banking experience in the fall developed using the low-code, no-code digital banking solution, Nextly. 

The solution allows $7.3 billion, East Lansing, Mich.-based credit union to provide customers with faster search functionality and financial insights while giving the credit union the ability to tailor it to future technology needs, Ami Iceman-Haueter, chief research and digital experience officer at MSUFCU, told Bank Automation News. 

The new member experience was developed over three years in partnership with credit union technology provider CU NextGen, which used Nextly for the development, Iceman-Haueter said. 

CU NextGen “did a lot of the lifting in terms of the technology, building and the coding and all of the functional practical pieces,” she said. Meanwhile, MSUFCU brought its intellectual property and vision to the new customer product and service offerings.  

“As technology has matured, we had just Frankenstein-ed [the legacy platform] so much to the point where … it no longer can continue to bend and flex the way we need it to in the new environment,” she said. 

The credit union wanted to “be able to add fintechs to [the platform] in the future or embed new technologies or really just design our own adventure as we go.” 

Personalization, flexibility pushed new platform 

Push-notification personalization and a more flexible platform were two key reasons for the credit union’s foray into the upgraded platform, Iceman-Haueter added. 

As part of the launch, MSUFCU will have its client-facing AI bot, Fran, handle initial chats with customers before they are routed to a human representative — if their needs go beyond Fran’s capabilities, Iceman-Haueter said. 

At last month’s Bank Automation Summit U.S. 2023 in Charlotte, N.C., Iceman-Haueter said MSUFCU’s own internal bot, Gene, had saved 2,000 employee hours and 21 full-time salaries annually, an estimated savings of $735,000 for the credit union. 

“We often try to bucket these things as technology projects when really they’re experience projects,” Iceman-Haueter said. “The technology has to work, the security has to be there, the code has to be sound, but the member is on the other side of it.”